1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing amorphous phases of metals useful in material engineering. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for preparing amorphous phases of intermetallic compounds by a chemical reaction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Amorphous metals are of interest as new materials rich in functional properties in wide fields of engineering because of their excellent physical and chemical properties.
For production of these morphous metals, two methods have been established: rapid cooling of liquid metal and vapor deposition of metal. Of these methods, the method of rapid cooling of liquid metal has become a main pathway recently and is able to provide an amorphous metal. Further, by the method of vapor deposition of metal, the metal vapor which is produced by heating and evaporating the metal in vacuo is applied onto a substrate maintained at the temperature of liquid helium or liquid nitrogen to obtain the amorphous metal.
The method of rapid cooling of liquid metal has the following problems: (1) the products are limited to ribbons or line and it is impossible to amorphize a thick part of a required part, and (2) the fields of use are narrowly limited because of the difficulty in controlling the rate of rapid cooling.
Further, the method of vapor deposition is unable to prepare a thicker product than a product obtained from the method of rapid cooling of liquid, and the obtained product has a very high cost.